After expensive and unfulfilling flings with such popular cities as Seattle and Chicago, Michigan native A.J. Paschka came back to Grand Rapids in 2003 with nothing but $2,000, a bicycle, and renewed purpose: to pursue a meaningful career in music and the arts. So far the move is paying off.
Today Paschka prepares world-class art pieces for exhibit, shipping, and storage at the Grand Rapids Art Museum. Next year, when the GRAM is scheduled to expand into its new facility, Paschka will oversee the cross-town transfer of an impressive collection of more than 5,000 objects, including a Toulouse-Lautrec painting, Henri Cartier-Bresson photographs, and a Pablo Picasso drawing. The 26-year-old Paschka also works as a freelance photographer. And he is a singer, songwriter, and guitar man who performs regularly at popular downtown pubs like the Black Rose.
“Grand Rapids is one of the few places I could do so much so fast,” Paschka said. “I just had to get past the old attitude that there was always something better some place else.”
Conventional thinking holds that Michigan residents – especially innovative young talents like Paschka – are fleeing the state in droves in search of jobs, trendy cities, and convenient public services like mass transit. But they’re not, according to state and federal statistics. People born in Michigan tend to stay in Michigan. And, after a decade of heavy investment in the urban core, the Grand Rapids metropolitan area is not only holding on to its brightest young adults amidst a stubborn economic downturn. The region continues to draw new foreign and domestic residents.
“It turns out that the state with the best population retention in the United States is Michigan,” said Kenneth Darga, a demographer in the Michigan Department of History, Arts, and Libraries. “Michigan is a good place to live. So we keep our native residents better than most states. By some measures, we do better than any other state in the country. People find that surprising.”
By the Numbers
Despite the factory shutdowns and heavy layoffs, record-setting unemployment, corporate bankrupticies, and all the other grim economic news, Michigan residents are not leaving the state in large numbers. In fact, contrary to popular perception, the Great Lakes State retains a greater percentage of its native population when compared with other states in the nation, according to 2000 U.S. Census data. Nearly 94 percent of the people who reported living in the state in 1995 still resided there in 2000.
“There is an impression that everyone wants to leave Michigan,” Darga said. “That’s probably because the state experienced huge population losses during the mid 1980’s. And I don’t think we’ve really gotten over the memory of that. Many still think the trend is true. But people who already live here generally want to stay.”
Indeed, Michigan is tops in the country at holding on to kids through age 19; the state is third best at retaining its own 20 year olds; and it ranks first when it comes to keeping people ranging in age from 30-54 years old.
Where Michigan falls short, Darga said, is keeping retirees who tend to move south and attracting new residents from other states. Only two states – New York and California – perform worse than Michigan when it comes to boosting the population of their citizens who hail from other states.
But even that appears to be changing in west Michigan. All seven of the counties that comprise the Grand Rapids-Holland-Muskegon region rank among the 27 counties in Michigan that drew more people from other states than they lost. The Latino population in Grand Rapids, for example, tripled in the City of Grand Rapids during the 1990’s.
Darga said the positive migration numbers reflect the region’s ability to both retain existing population and attract new domestic and foreign residents. He also noted the region’s birth rate exceeds deaths.
“Since the Grand Rapids area does better than the rest of the state in terms of net-migration, it must be doing relatively well in terms of either retaining its population or attracting people from elsewhere,” Darga said. “I expect that Grand Rapids is probably doing especially well at attracting people from elsewhere.”
A Place to Come Back
A.J. Paschka originally came to Grand Rapids in 1997 from the small cottage town of Pinckney, MI, near Ann Arbor. He received a scholarship to attend Kendall College of Art and Design and had dreams of cutting an album, maybe starting a record label. But the city initially struck him as an “ultra conservative ghost town with nothing to do” and limited opportunity. So in 2001 he moved to Seattle, the birthplace of grunge rock, and eventually on to Chicago hoping to find fame and fortune.
“I never planned to return to Grand Rapids,” Paschka said. “But all I did was work stupid retail jobs and collect bills. Then my mindset changed and I began to think hard about how I could better my situation.”
Demographers say a number of factors strengthen the ability of Grand Rapids and Michigan to retain native citizens. Technical reasons include the Great Lakes, which prevent short moves across the state line. But there are also cultural reasons why residents tend to stay. People from Michigan and the Midwest usually have deep family ties to the area. Neighboring states such as Ohio (#3), Wisconsin (#4), and Minnesota (#7) also retain significant numbers of their native residents. What’s more, the Great Lakes provide unique recreational opportunities and an exceptional quality of life.
Paschka enjoys hiking and trips to Lake Michigan. But he also welcomed Grand Rapids’ low cost of living. He came to value the close community relationships that boosted his social and professional network. And he is increasingly impressed by the way the mid-sized city looks, feels, and functions.
“Grand Rapids is a hybrid city,” Paschka said. “It’s kind of like Seattle with the hills. It reminds me of Chicago because its so neighborhood oriented. And with all the different universities it’s becoming more of a college town than Ann Arbor.”
“I’ve definitely come full circle,” Paschka continued. “Now I don’t want to leave this place. And I’m recruiting my friends.”
Photographs by Brian Kelly
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